CODEWITHSUNDEEP
xmlxpathxquery
marc esher
marc esher

Reputation: 4921

Using XPath, How do I select a node based on its text content and value of an attribute?

Given this XML:

<DocText>
<WithQuads>
    <Page pageNumber="3">
        <Word>
            July
            <Quad>
                <P1 X="84" Y="711.25" />
                <P2 X="102.062" Y="711.25" />
                <P3 X="102.062" Y="723.658" />
                <P4 X="84.0" Y="723.658" />
            </Quad>
        </Word>
        <Word>
        </Word>
        <Word>
            30,
            <Quad>
                <P1 X="104.812" Y="711.25" />
                <P2 X="118.562" Y="711.25" />
                <P3 X="118.562" Y="723.658" />
                <P4 X="104.812" Y="723.658" />
            </Quad>
        </Word>
    </Page>
</WithQuads>

I'd like to find the nodes that have text of 'July' and a Quad/P1/X attribute Greater than 90. Thus, in this case, it should not return any matches. However, if I use GT (>) or LT (<), I get a match on the first Word element. If I use eq (=), I get no match.

So:

//Word[text()='July' and //P1[@X < 90]]

will return true, as will

//Word[text()='July' and //P1[@X > 90]]

How do I constrain this properly on the P1@X attribute?

In addition, imagine I have multiple Page elements, for different page numbers. How would I additionally constrain the above search to find Nodes with text()='July', P1@X < 90, and Page@pageNumber=3?

Upvotes: 77

Views: 109123

Answers (2)

Michael Kay
Michael Kay

Reputation: 163262

Apart form the "//" issue, this XML is a very weird use of mixed content. The predicate text()='July' will match the element if any child text node is exactly equal to July, which isn't true in your example because of surrounding whitespace. Depending on the exact definition of the source XML, I would go for [text()[normalize-space(.)='July'] and Quad/P1/@X > 90]

Upvotes: 29

AnthonyWJones
AnthonyWJones

Reputation: 189439

Generally I would consider the use of an unprefixed // as a bad smell in an XPath.

Try this:-

/DocText/WithQuads/Page/Word[text()='July' and Quad/P1/@X > 90]

Your problem is that you use the //P1[@X < 90] which starts back at the beginning of the document and starts hunting any P1 hence it will always be true. Similarly //P1[@X > 90] is always true.

Upvotes: 85

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